It is actually pretty hard to stall a 737. Was given stall recovery scenarios in my last sim, and by-golly do you have to try pretty hard to stall the aircraft. The control forces req are strong to bleed off the speed (and to maintain the G/S) and the nose becomes extremely heavy, plus the stick shaker and the buffet get your attention. Granted it was only the sim, but there's no doubt about the signals long before the stall.
The easiest time to stall is when you go-around, since the pitch-up is pronounced - doubly more so if you press TOGA twice, and you spend most of the time pushing the control column forward to maintain speed. If you get this wrong (i.e. no forward control input) then you can easily stall the aircraft. In addition, if you only have one auto-pilot in, then on pressing TOGA, it will disconnect and you're on your own. It can catch you out, as in the case of the Thomson in Bournemouth.
AMS controllers are pretty much on the money too, and despite some reasonably fast approaches in their traffic pattern, I've always felt pretty comfortable. No visual approaches, or circling to land - even on a good day!
But, if the A/T is disconnected, and in ARM, then 5 kts below the MCP speed, A/T will re-engage anyway, so unlikely to stall that way. Of course, complete A/T disconnect will give you no protection.
Last edited by no sponsor; 25th Feb 2009 at 19:42.